SOME ADOLESCENTS ADEPT AT MEDIA MULTITASKING
Telling youths who are
juggling multiple electronic devices to "focus on the task at hand"
may not always be good advice, according to research to be presented by two
high school students on Saturday, Oct. 11 at the American Academy of Pediatrics
(AAP) National Conference & Exhibition.
Sarayu Caulfield and
Alexandra Ulmer, seniors at Oregon Episcopal School in Portland, Ore., will
present their study "Capacity Limits of Working Memory: The Impact of
Media Multitasking on Cognitive Control in the Adolescent Mind" from
1-1:30 p.m. in Marina Ballroom Salon E at the San Diego Marriott Marquis.
Contrary to popular
belief that multitasking leads to poor performance, the young researchers found
the opposite is true for adolescents who spend a lot of time switching between
media devices and tasks.
"Maybe practice
really does make perfect," Ms. Ulmer said.
"In our current
multimedia environment, there are people who are multitasking at an exceedingly
high rate, and the reality is that they may have become really good at
it," Ms. Caulfield added.
To study how media
multitasking affects adolescents' ability to process information, the young
researchers recruited 196 females and 207 males ages 10-19. All participants
answered questions about their daily media habits and completed the Stanford
Multitasking Media Index, which assesses how often a person multitasks (e.g.,
texts, instant messages and emails at the same time).
Participants then
completed tests to assess their ability to switch between tasks and to focus on
a single task. They were randomly assigned to complete these tasks sequentially
with no distractions (non-multitasking) or simultaneously with auditory, visual
and cognitive distractions such as responding to emails (multitasking).
Results showed that
those who scored low on the media multitasking index spent an average of about
20 minutes a day multitasking. They also averaged about 2.5 hours of homework
per day and were multitasking 0.08% of this time. Meanwhile, those who scored
high on the multitasking index averaged more than three hours per day of
multitasking. They did homework for about 3.5 hours a day and juggled multiple
tasks for more than 50% of this time.
When asked to complete
the study tasks, high media multitaskers were better at filtering out
distractions but performed worse when made to focus on a single task. Low
multitaskers were less able to filter out distractions but focused better on
single tasks.
"We must
emphasize that most people performed best when focused on just one task,"
Ms. Caulfield said. "However, there was a group that provided us with an
exception to that finding -- the high media multitaskers."
Added Ms. Ulmer:
"This study suggests that digital natives (adolescents who grew up with
exposure to multiple media) with high multiple media use may have developed an
enhanced working memory and perform better in distracting environments than
when focused on a single task with no distractions. This could have a
significant impact on teaching styles and curriculum."
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